FHA Morkef Anolysis Studies on 'Locql Areqs Helpful to Deolers

for making business decisions, today's progi roseive lumber and building material dealI ers are employing more scientific ap) proaches. I

One method found to be bxtremely help, ful in management planning, according to the National Lumber and Building Mar' terial Dealers Association, is use of market , analysis data by the Federal Housing Administration.

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FHA information pinpoints a local area's housing supply and demand, trends in mortBage finance, vacancieg profit potential and , the like. It is of value to all sesments of the industry, but to the lumber dealer specifically the data provides a basis for determining what his market is, or should be, and whether his firm is progressing or falling behind.

Up to last year, market analysis studies conducted by FHA were not available to the public, but in January, 1965 the administrationos policy was changed to allow public usage.

Over 60 separate local market analysis reports have been issued by FHA to date; many more are in the works and are expected to be completed this year. FHA has been averaging about one report every week. The market analysis contains the following statement of purpose: "While each report is designed specifically for FHA use in administering its mortgage insur' ,ance operations, it is expected that the factual information and the findings and conclusions of these reports will be gen' erally useful also to builderq mortgagees, and others concerned with local housing problems."

The reports are well prepared, with the statistical data placed side by side witb the analyses in a manner easily under' standable. Other information not pertain' ing to housing necessarily relates to personal income patterns in the city and sur' rounding areas; forecasts of population growth; employment considerationsn and general economic conditions of the par' ticular locality.

The enthusiastic response from housing economists regarding the analyses is due in large part to the detail of the reports and the facts these details are brought down to the local level. With emphasis placed on local markets, the facts serve to graphically illustrate the many deviations in housing taking place from one area of the country to another. Such information is rapidly becoming a vital tool to most building induetry groups within a given market area. Lumber dealers etand to ben' efit with the others if they utilize the FHA market studies and correlate them to their business interests.

Copies of the market analyses may be obtained directly through local FHA offices.

Where Pine Grows

The high mountains of southern Vietnam are the only known habitat ol Pinus kremp' fi, a unique pine with flattened needles. Torrey pine, common in southern Califor' nia gardens, grows naturally only on the blufis near San Diego and on Santa Rosa Island. These are among the rarest of the world's pines.

Easy to get attached to:

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rire-netirdant

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And easier to use: you can saw them, bore them, nail. notch or fasten to them. work with them as only wood works.. and now. more than ever. cut costs with them-spacing on 24" centers instead of 16".

BAXCO f ire- retardant wood studs are now almost univer- AFTER ALL-YOUR CUSTOME4S WOULD RATHER USE WOOD sally acceptable in Type I wouLD buildings for framing within one-hour, non- load- beari ng partitions. Fire tests prove BAxco-PYREsorE wood studs perform on 24" spacing. Each is U.L. labeled. For f ull information write, wire or phone

Scotch pine, the most widely distributed of the pines, grows throughout northern Eurasia, from Scotland to Manchuria and the Pacific Ocean. Lodgepole pine extends from the Yukon to Mexico, and from sea level to the High Sierra timberline in Cali {ornia.

These facts, and much more about all of the 94 known species of pine, are included in a new publication, o'Geographic Distri' bution of the Pines of the World," by two U.S. Forest Service scientists. They are William B. Critchfield, a geneticist with the Forest Service Experiment Station at Berkeley and Etrbert L. Little, Jr., a Forest Service dendrologist in Washington, D.C.

Published as Miscellaneous Publication 991 of the U.S. Department of Agriculturg it is being sold for 75 cents by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.'Government Printing Ofrce Washington, D.C.

CRA Refules Prof.'s Chorges

There's no shortage of old-growth redwood trees and they're rct being logged sig:nificantly faster than before, the state park cominission has been told by Califor' nia Redwood Association.

CRA was responding to charges made by a forestry professor from Arcata. His statement that the cut of Humboldt County redwoods had jumped 34 percent was called ooerroneous and unsustainable" in a detailed report filed by CRA Forester John T. Keane.

Keane claimed that the conclusions of Prof. Rudolf Becking "did not use official public data, ignored timber growth figures, used faulty conversion factors, made incorrect assumptions and included all species of timber instead of redwood only".

Becking had been invited by the commission to testify on the redwood park issue as a private citizen and member of a conservation club, not in his capacity as associate professor at Humboldt State College.

Keane explained that Becking apparently took the Humboldt County assessor's preliminary cut total for six companies in ,.^:196445 and compared it with the previous year's figure to conclude that redwood cut. ting had increased. These were tax roll depletion volumes, Keane said, rather than cpt figures. They applied to all species of timber and included two large companies that do not cut redwoods. Furthern he charged, the 1963-64 figures later proved to be for a lO-month period instead of 12.

Becking was quoted as telling the com' mission in December that the county's sup' ply of old-growth timber would be gone in 1968. CRA's report cited governmental and private sources that indicate a 20 to 30' year supply of old-growth in Hum'boldt County at current cutting rates. The lumber industry has stated that a gradual change-over to sustained-yield cutting of young-growth timber will be made in this period.

"The Becking statement completely ignored net growth additions to timber inventbry and mistakenly charged all harvesting against old-growth inventories", Keane said. "Data is reported as ofrcial public data which difiers significantly from that available directly from the issuing public agency".

"The study does not indicate objectivity in approach or in analysis", he concluded.

Reseorch Council Activities

Faced by a myriad of challenges and changes in marketing building materiab today, lumber and building material dealers are embracing the premise that research directed to their needs may be one of the best means of business survival in the uncertain future.

' CAUTORNIA LU'VIBER ,$ETCHANT

With dealers calling for increased re' search activitieso the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association's Na' tional Reseaich Council has stepped in. Aiding the council are 600 lumber dealere who *are research sustaining members. Their membership on a direct basis with the national association provides the fin' ancial assistance necessary. A group of manufacturers also s'upport the council through special membership as research associates.

Research for the lumber dealer industry is not a new activity. Founded in 1949 by a group of progress-minded dealers, the Lumber Dealers Research Council conducted many meaningful studies: its schools and its publications are well-known and respected by thousands of dealers. Its early pioneering work in the field of components helped lead the nation's construc' iion industry to its present use of com' ponents manufactured by retail dealgrl-^

In 1965, following action of the LDRC board of directors and the NLBMDA board, a merger between the two groups was negotiated, which was finalized in January.

The NLBMDA National Rcsearch C,oun' cil was thereby established as the research organization for the industry -headed by Raymon Harrell, formed LDRC executive vice president.